The present disclosure relates communication and, more particularly, to controlling a transmission path for providing a server push service in a heterogeneous network environment.
Push technology is Internet-based communication technology that initiates a transmission request by a service provider, a publisher, or a central server. Such push technology might be an opposite concept of pull technology that initiates a transmission request by a client (e.g., user equipment).
Server push may denote a mechanism for sending unsolicited (asynchronous) data from a web server to a web browser. For example, server push is a new feature of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) 2.0, which enables a web server to transmit a predetermined part of essential resources to load a desired web page in advance without a HTTP Request from a client. Such a server push feature might significantly reduce a loading time of a desired web page on user equipment. That is, the server push feature advantageously enables pushing selected types of resources in advance. Such selected types of resources may be i) resources that significantly reduces a loading time of desired web pages, ii) resources that are related to predetermined contents having a higher rate of being selected by a user among other contents in a web page, iii) resources that are related to a predetermined event of a web page, or iv) resources that are related to predetermined advertisements included in a web page.
However, the server push transmits unrequested data from a server (e.g., a web server) to user equipment without permission or request from the user equipment. Such a feature might incur undesired cost for using a network, such as a commercial mobile communication network (e.g., AT&T® network or Verizon® mobile communication network.